Edo, the place where the group of people from Gourd House are hiding——
"Where on earth did Mamiya go..." Makimura murmured while lying on the tatami.
"Who knows." Asai, who was sitting next to him and oiling his sword, responded.
Yesterday morning, when they woke up, they found that Jian Gongyu had gone out at some point.
When asked where Mamiya was, Lin only said "he went to do something", and other than that, she did not reveal any information about Mamiya's whereabouts.
As of now, Mamiya has been missing for almost a day.
They were not too worried about Mamiya's personal safety. After all, it was hard for them to imagine who else in Edo Castle could threaten Mamiya's life.
The biggest impression Mamiya gave them was that he was reliable - no matter what he was asked to do, he could basically complete it with ease. When asked how he completed the task so easily, he would say lightly, "I used to study ××."
Makimura and others are now more curious about what Mamiya did when he "disappeared" so quietly.
"...Could it be that Mamiya is going to look for his lover who he secretly hid in Edo?" Makimura said in a joking tone.
"That's even more impossible." Asai responded without hesitation, "Do you think Mamiya is the kind of person who would be interested in women?"
"That's true." Makimura nodded. "But nothing is absolute in this world. People always change. Maybe after coming to the glamorous world of Edo, Mamiya's originally dull heart began to stir, and then secretly found a lover in Edo without our knowledge."
"Then one day, he came back with a girl and said to us: Everyone, let me introduce you, this is my wife."
"Makimura. It's a pity that you don't become a Kabuki playwright." Asai complained about Makimura very skillfully, "Mamiya suddenly brought a woman back? How is this possible?"
After saying that, Asai shrugged and sneered.
"You are very confident in Mamiya's character." Makimura raised his eyes and looked at Asai.
"Of course." Asai nodded. "Normally, I work with Mamiya the most. I don't know how little Mamiya is interested in women."
Makimura: "It seems that you are really confident in Mamiya's character."
"That's right." Asai, who usually had a blank expression on his face, showed a rare confident smile on his face, "I'll tell you this -"
Having said that, Asai seriously picked up the knife oil beside him.
"I have so much confidence in Mamiya's character that I can tell you with confidence: If Mamiya comes back with a woman one day, I will drink this knife oil on the spot."
Boom, boom, boom!
Asai had just finished speaking when the sound of "dong dong dong" footsteps suddenly rang out in the corridor outside the room.
"Makimura-senpai! Asai-senpai!"
Shimada yanked the paper sliding door open.
"Shimada, why are you in such a hurry?" Asai looked at Shimada with a puzzled look.
"Senior Mamiya is back!" Shimada shouted in astonishment, "You may not believe this, but Senior Mamiya actually brought back a young girl!"
Shimada originally thought that after he said such explosive news, both Makimura and Asai would be so shocked that they would stand up immediately.
However...the actual scene that appeared in front of Shimada was that the two of them first looked at him in shock.
Then they all silently turned their attention to the bottle of knife oil in Asai's hand...
…
…
Mamiya returned with Azhu and Vairocana, who he successfully rescued.
Everyone in the gourd house, including Genichi, who was still drinking silently until Mamiya came back, gathered together to listen to Mamiya explain what he did yesterday and what was going on with the girl Atake.
Since I have to explain what happened to the girl Azhu, I naturally cannot avoid explaining my own life experience.
At this moment, Mamiya revealed his life story for the first time to the other members of the Gourd House except Lin: he was the eldest son of the seventh generation head of the Yamada Asaemon family - Yamada Asaemon Yoshitsune.
He was supposed to inherit the position of family head and become the eighth generation head of the Yamada Asaemon family.
“Mamiya-senpai, you are… from the Yamada Asaemon family…”
Among the people present, except for Genichi who was relatively calm, as if he had already expected Mamiya's background, the faces of the others were filled with uncontrollable shock.
"I'm sorry for keeping it a secret from you for so long." Mamiya smiled at Shimada, "After all - for me, the past had some good parts, but there were also many things that are not worth recalling."
Shimada and the others were only shocked for a moment at Mamiya's true identity.
After all, there is another person named Azhu who deserves more attention beside the Time Palace at this time.
"...Your name is Azhu, right?" Lin, who was sitting right in front of Mamiya, turned her gaze to look at the 15-year-old girl sitting behind Mamiya.
After noticing Lin's gaze, Ah Zhu subconsciously hid behind the person who had desperately rescued her last night, her eyes full of fear.
She was now wearing the new clothes that Yoshitomo had prepared for her, which made her look a little better, but as she had just escaped from hell, the panic in her eyes was not so easy to remove.
Looking at Ah Zhu who was full of fear, Lin pursed her lips, pondered for a moment, and then shouted to the people around her:
"You all should go out first. With so many people gathered here, she will be scared. Ah, Mamiya can stay."
Lin deliberately left behind Mamiya, the person whom Azhu trusted the most, so that she would have enough sense of security.
Everyone who knew Lin's intention filed out, leaving only Lin, Mamiya and Atake in the room.
"Asai-senpai, what's wrong with you?" As soon as he left the room, Shimada asked Asai beside him with a puzzled look on his face, "Why do you look so serious? Are you feeling unwell?"
Shimada had noticed from the beginning that Asai looked very bad, as if he was feeling unwell.
“…Shimada.”
Asai asked in a deep voice.
"If a person drinks a bottle of knife oil, will he die?"
Shimada: ???
…
…
After Genichi, Makimura and the others left, Lin turned her attention back to Takeru.
"Okay, there's no one else here now. Just the three of us."
Lin was not a person with many expressions. Ninety percent of her expressions throughout the day were expressionless. But at this moment, she tried her best to lift up both corners of her mouth, trying her best to show what she thought was a friendly smile.
"You don't need to be afraid. We are not bad people and will never do anything to you."
"I promise you: we will definitely escort you all the way home afterward."
"But before that, could you please tell me - what happened to you before, and how did your body become so resilient?"
Perhaps it was because Lin was a woman like her and was smaller in stature, so Lin gave Azhu a sense of intimacy and security, and the uneasiness and fear in her eyes faded a little.
She raised her eyes and looked at Mamiya, who had rescued her from hell last night. The panic in her eyes faded a little again.
"My name is Takeru... I'm from Osaka..."
Whenever Azhu speaks, he speaks standard Kansai dialect.
With a slightly trembling voice, she slowly described her past.
Her past was not complicated, but it made Lin's brows slowly frown.
According to Azhu, she was the daughter of an ordinary craftsman in Osaka.
One evening when she was returning home, she suddenly heard hurried footsteps behind her. Before she could turn around to see what was happening, she felt a heavy blow on the back of her neck and then fainted.
When I opened my eyes again, I found myself locked up alone in a dark place that looked like a prison.
Not long after she woke up, two people entered the cell and force-fed her a piece of meat as big as a fingernail. Because Ah Zhu never eats meat, she couldn't tell what animal the meat was from.
After force-feeding her the piece of meat, they also forced a pill with a strong medicinal taste into her mouth and forced her to swallow it.
After being fed the piece of meat and the pill, Ah Zhu felt his body was extremely hot, so hot that he felt as if he was being burned by a fire.
After the heat in his body subsided, Azhu was surprised to find that his body had acquired extremely terrifying recovery ability.
No matter what kind of injury you have, it will heal very quickly. When the injury is healing, you won't feel anything, no pain, no itching , and the injury will heal silently.
Since eating the strange piece of meat and pills, she has not been fed anything strange, nor has she been done anything else.
She was kept in prison like this. Occasionally, a few people would come and cut wounds on her body with knives, as if they were observing the recovery condition and speed of her wounds.
It was pitch dark in the prison. She had no idea whether it was day or night, or what time it was. Even if she cried and begged to be let go home, no one would pay attention to her. If she made too much noise, she would even be beaten and warned not to make any more noise.
I don’t know how long I have been imprisoned, I don’t know how my body became like this, and I don’t know how long I will be imprisoned.
The only thing she knew was that the people in prison called her "Ding Ling Er San".
Until one day, Azhu smelled a thick smoke and a foul odor.
This is the smoke and stench that comes with a raging fire...
Immediately afterwards, Azhu saw a woman suddenly coming to the door of his prison.
The woman covered herself tightly, leaving only her eyes exposed, so Ah Zhu couldn't see her face clearly. He could only tell from her voice that she was very young.
The mysterious woman just said coldly to Ah Zhu, "Go away," and then opened the prison door.
This young woman secretly released her... no, it should be said that she released many people who were imprisoned in other prisons, including her.
It was not until then that Ah Zhu realized that there were so many people like her, locked up in such a dark place.
If Ah Zhu remembered correctly, there were about ten people rescued by the mysterious woman, including her.
When they were rescued, the mysterious woman gave each of them a small cloth bag, each of which contained about 200 coins.
Then, after escaping with the help of the mysterious woman, Azhu and his friends found flames and thick smoke everywhere. Under the cover of the fire and under the guidance of the mysterious woman, they escaped from this dark place.
Ah Zhu remembered it clearly - they had come out of a cave. As soon as they came out of the cave, they saw layers of mountains.
Before they had time to be happy, they were pursued by the enemy.
"You guys run separately, and if you keep walking in that direction you will reach where there are people. Save your money, and I will do my best to help you divert the pursuers." - This was the last sentence Ah Zhu heard from the mysterious woman. When she said this, the mysterious woman pointed in a certain direction.
Azhu and his friends obeyed the mysterious woman's orders and fled separately. Since then, Azhu never saw the mysterious woman again.
Ah Zhu ran for his life until he couldn't move even his toes.
She was lucky—there were no sounds of pursuers behind her when she was too tired to move.
She was unlucky - when she first started running away, there was a man and a woman of similar age running in the same direction as her. But when Ah Zhu was too tired to move, the man and woman had disappeared.
It is unknown whether they were exhausted and fell behind, or whether they took another route.
In short, Azhu walked aimlessly forward alone in the mountains from then on.
Although the mysterious woman had pointed the way for them before, Ah Zhu had already fled to a place where he couldn't even tell which direction was east, south, west or north. Unfortunately, he had forgotten which direction the mysterious woman had pointed at...
So she could only walk forward aimlessly.
Then, a lucky thing and an unfortunate thing happened to Azhu.
Fortunately, she walked aimlessly and successfully walked out of the mountain. As soon as she came down the mountain, she found a village. After asking in the village, she learned that she was in Kii and there was a port not far away.
Azhu was just an ordinary 15-year-old girl. At that time, she didn't know what to do or where to go except going home.
In order to board the ship to Osaka, Azhu resolutely went to the port.
The current security situation is generally not very good, but Azhu, who was alone, actually managed to successfully reach the port.
Unfortunately, after arriving at the port, she encountered unscrupulous ship merchants.
The ship merchant said that their ship was heading to Osaka, and he would let Azhu get on board as long as he paid enough money.
Ah Zhu was young and inexperienced, and could not distinguish good from evil in people's hearts. She foolishly gave most of the money that the mysterious woman gave to the unscrupulous ship merchant.
This guy claimed that his ship was a merchant ship bound for Osaka, but his ship's destination was actually Edo...
Azhu arrived in Edo in a daze.
She had no education and didn't know how long it would take to get from Kii to Osaka. It wasn't until she arrived at Edo Port that she realized she had been cheated...
She didn't have the courage to argue with the vicious ship merchant and could only swallow the bitter fruit in silence.
She wanted nothing more than to go home.
She was unfamiliar with Edo and had nowhere to go, so she could only put her hope on the government, hoping that the government could help her return home or help her get back her money from the unscrupulous ship merchant.
As a result... before she even reached the door of the Edo Magistrate's Office, she was harassed by two thugs.
And then... I met Fumiaki and Yoshitomo who happened to pass by.
There is no need to elaborate on what happened afterwards.
The above is what happened to Azhu after he was kidnapped in Osaka.
Lin and Mamiya's expressions were now very complicated - Takeru's tragic experience made them both unsure of what kind of expression to show...
As Ah Zhu recalled and told her own story, her eyes were red from the beginning.
Her experience was so tragic that even listeners like Lin could not help but be moved.
Looking at Ah Zhu, whose eyes were red and looked like she might cry at any time, Lin sighed softly, then crawled to Ah Zhu on her knees, then opened her arms like a mother bird opening her arms to protect her chicks, and embraced Ah Zhu in her arms.
"It's okay." Lin gently patted the back of Ah Zhu's head with one hand and stroked Ah Zhu's back with the other hand. "You have suffered enough now. Everything will be fine from now on."
Lin's comfort instantly collapsed Azhu's already fragile psychological defenses.
“Woooaaaaaaaaa——!”
Ah Zhu hugged Lin tightly, buried his face in Lin's shoulder, and cried loudly.
Lin did not avoid the tears and snot that Ah Zhu wiped on her clothes. She just continued to hug Ah Zhu silently and patted the back of her head and back.
Only after Ah Zhu's emotions gradually stabilized and he stopped crying did Lin let go of Ah Zhu in her arms.
"Azhu, do you remember the approximate location of the cave where you were imprisoned?" Lin suddenly asked, "Or - can you lead us back along the route you escaped and find the cave?"
"I... don't remember..." Ah Zhu shook his head, "After escaping, I ran aimlessly without knowing the direction... so I can't take you back the way you came... and I don't remember where the cave is..."
"Is that so... forget it." Lin smiled at Azhu.
The smile Lin showed at this moment was much softer than the friendly smile she had forced herself to show just now.
"Thank you for your hard work. Do you want to go down and rest first? Is there anything you want to eat?"
…
…
Lin actually still has a lot of questions she wants to ask the child.
For example, what the meat and pills she was forced to eat tasted like and what color they were.
But she didn't want to tire the child out by asking too many questions at once, so she decided to take it slow and eat her meal one bite at a time.
Lin asked Mamiya to take Azhu downstairs to rest first, and asked Mamiya to go to the kitchen later to count how much food was left. She wanted to make something delicious at noon to nourish the poor girl's long-tortured body.
After Mamiya left with Takeru, Lin stood up and left the room.
As soon as I left the room, I saw Genichi, Makimura and others waiting for news outside the room.
" My lord ," Mucun asked first, "What was the result? Did you find out anything? I just heard the girl crying loudly."
Lin did not answer Makura's question, but said in an unquestionable tone:
"We have to change our next schedule. We won't go back to Owari for now. We will go to Osaka in Kansai first."
After saying this, Lin turned her head and looked towards the west.
Her sharp gaze seemed to penetrate thousands of miles and see as far as Osaka in Kansai.
"I never expected that..." Lin whispered in a voice that only she could hear, "I actually got information about 'immortality' out of nowhere..."
…
…
About a month later——
Owari, somewhere——
"Then, in order to practice holding our breath, we had to put our faces in a basin full of water every day. It was a stupid way of training."
"Are you using a washbasin to train?" Azhu complained at the right time.
"It's convenient after all." Ah-Ming said, "Training also has to be cost-effective. Going to the river to practice holding your breath is a waste of time."
"Hey, you two should stop chatting for a while." Ogata, who was sitting on the radish, said to A-Ming and A-Tsuku, who were sitting on the grapes one after the other. "The ground ahead is bumpy, be careful not to bite your tongue."
Don't talk while your horse is walking on rough ground, as long as you don't want your tongue to be bitten by your teeth - this is little-known knowledge to every horse rider.
More than a month has passed since it made landfall in northern Oshu.
Over the past month, Ogata and others have been heading south, straight towards Owari.
For more than a month, everything has been calm.
Although he no longer had the human skin mask, Ogata had always used a bamboo hat and other items to cover his face, and had never encountered any trouble due to his true identity being exposed.
And along the way, we didn't encounter any remnants of Iga...
With Ogata's permission, Azhu continued to sell straw sandals and "Yun Jin" training manuals wherever he went while following Ogata and Atachi.
However, up to now, Ogata has not encountered any of the Iga remnants that were led by Azuki...
Azhu is a cheerful child. At the same time, she is a good child. She does whatever Ogata asks her to do. She never disobeys Ogata and never causes any trouble for him.
To put it simply - she is a very worry-free child.
This long journey of more than a month also allowed Ogata, A-machi and A-tsuku to gradually become familiar with each other.
Since everyone is now in a partnership, it is impossible for Atachi to keep her identity as the "former female ninja in Shiranui" a secret forever.
When Azuki first joined the group, A-Machi told Azuki that she was also a female ninja.
After learning that A-Machi was a female ninja like her, A-Tsuku expressed great excitement: As for Shiranui, she said that she had only heard a few words from her grandfather, so didn't know much about this ninja.
Azuki was very curious about Atachi, who was also a female ninja, and Shiranui. Along the way, he would often chat with Atachi about various issues related to Shiranui, just like he did just now.
Although A-Machi didn't have a good impression of Shiranui, she didn't hide her previous experience in Shiranui.
After Azhu asked various questions related to Shiranui, A-Machi would patiently answer them one by one, and occasionally tell stories about her previous life in Shiranui.
And Ating is indeed gifted in telling stories...or rather, water stories.
We have been traveling together for more than a month, but Atachi has not finished telling the story of "The Past in Shiranui"... She seems to have only talked about the story when she was 12 years old...
Although A-Ming talked about her past at great length, she also told it in a very tortuous and exciting way, which made A-Zhu still unable to stop talking about her past.
Now, Azhu would pester A-Ting almost every day, asking A-Ting to tell her about her past quickly.
After Ogata asked A-machi and A-tsuki not to speak, they both obediently shut their mouths.
Only after passing through this bumpy ground did Azhu open his mouth wide and let out a long breath, as if he had just held his breath in the water, and then asked Ogata:
"Master Ittosai, how long do we have to walk before we reach the village where your friends are?"
"Almost there," Ogata replied, "We'll be there in a little while."
When Azuki just joined their team, Ogata told Azuki what they were going to do next - go to Owari, find his friends with extensive connections, and ask if they knew where there were any great swordsmiths.
Ogata and his companions are now heading towards the village that has received favors from Hyakuraya and has close ties with Hyakuraya.
The headquarters of Huluwu is located on the mountain behind the village. The village is a bit like the outpost of Huluwu.
Ogata had been to that village twice before. The first time was after leaving Choujima, when he was invited by Mamiya and Makimura to visit their headquarters in Gourd House.
The second time was when I was invited to rest with them before leaving Kyoto for Edo.
Each of his two visits to the Huluya headquarters was of great significance to Ogata.
During his first visit, Ogata got to know Genichirō, Rin and others.
As for the second visit, it was even more so. The second visit had extraordinary significance for both Ogata and Atachi.
After passing through a very familiar dirt road in the mountains, finally - a village that looked like a paradise appeared before Ogata's eyes.
"We're here!" Ogata shouted to Azhu beside him, then tapped the horse's belly lightly to speed up Radish's horse a little.
…
…
"Lord Ogata, why are you here?" The village chief who went out to greet him looked at Ogata who had just dismounted in front of him with surprise.
"Village chief." Ogata took off his bamboo hat and smiled, "Long time no see."
Ogata had been here twice, so almost everyone in the village knew Ogata and knew that Ogata was a distinguished guest of Huluwu.
After a brief greeting with the village chief, I got straight to the point:
"Village Chief, are Miss Lin and the others here?"
"Mr. Kinoshita and the others are not here." The village chief shook his head. "They have not returned since you went to Edo together."
"You haven't come back yet?" Ogata asked in surprise.
All kinds of doubts surfaced in Ogata's mind——
How much time had passed since they had traveled to Edo together to prepare to deal with Shiranui?
Did they stay in Edo during this time, or did they go somewhere else?
"Lord Ogata, do you have something to discuss with Lord Kinoshita and the others?" the village chief asked.
"Hmm..." Ogata scratched his hair, "I do have something to ask them..."
After hesitating for a while, Ogata tentatively asked the village chief: Do you know where there is a good swordsmith?
The result - as expected, the village chief shook his head.
The main responsibility of this village is to help guard Huluwu, so Ogata also expected that they probably wouldn't know any important information. Therefore, Ogata was mentally prepared for the village chief to shake his head.
——I’m in trouble…
Ogata thought to himself.
——With Lin and the others not here, where can we find a good knife maker...